TAWARIKH: International Journal for Historical Studies, 7(1) October 2015 KATHERINA ALLO & YASRAF AMIR PILIANG Historizing the City of Pekalongan ABSTRACT: Historizing a collective life requires moments of time which construct a shared memory, moments in time that have brought a revolutionary change in the collective life, moments of marking that shared life in the progressive time sequencing, and moments of repetitions of what has been lived and experienced in that collectiveness. Without a moment of revolutionary change, the finding of that moment in history would seek into other forms of acknowledgement. Accordingly, the Pekalongan city in Central Java has a significant role in the development of batik production in Indonesia; and so, in 2011, this city was launched as the “world batik city” by the government. This gesture was made to re-activate the dynamics of life in Pekalongan as it has experienced a decline in its industrial productivity. Other local potentials that support the characteristics of Pekalongan as a batik city have also been re-activated and upgraded, such as conserving the local batik kampongs, “Kauman” and “Pesindon”, to be part of the national batik tourist destination areas. This writing will analyze how the life in Pekalongan underwent its historical process and how the external and internal factors interacted and weaved the various texture of life as it became the local color and identity of Pekalongan. Qualitative analysis methods are used in this writing to redefine what is commonly understood as a process of historization, and how this understanding can be used to look at the different contexts of life in Pekalongan. The finding of this research will show other possibilities that can be explored in the process of redefining and historizing the life of this city. KEY WORDS: Historizing, collective life, batik, Pekalongan, world batik city, tourist destination area, local color and identity, and redefining of history. INTRODUCTION to the formation of a special team to continue In 2006, the local community in the process of establishing the history of the Pekalongan, Central Java, Indonesia – along city. This special team, then, settled on the date with a group of academicians, cultural critics, of 1st April 1906, as the day of birth of the city local government, and other interested parties according to the 1906 Staadblad (government the city. But, the process that had been done afdeeling (section) through– was set series to decide of seminars on the date and ofacademic finding of Pekalonganofficial gazette) to become Legislation gemeente No.124, (city) which Pekalongan.had defined theThe area areal of boundary of the afdeeling itself had been determined by establishment.discussions finally The ended unconclusive in an unresolved result has led Staadblad conclusion on the exact date of the city’s first No.73 of 1874. The formation of About the Authors: Katherina Allo is a Doctoral Student at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology), Jalan Ganesha No.10 Tamansari, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; and Prof. Dr. Yasraf Amir Piliang is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design ITB Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. For academic interests, corresponding author is: [email protected] How to cite this article? Allo, Katherina & Yasraf Amir Piliang. (2015). “Historizing the City of Pekalongan” in TAWARIKH: International Journal for Historical Studies, Vol.7(1) October, pp.99-110. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press, ISSN 2085-0980. Chronicle of the article: Accepted (August 29, 2015); Revised (September 27, 2015); and Published (October 28, 2015). © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia 99 ISSN 2085-0980 and website: www.tawarikh-journal.com KATHERINA ALLO & YASRAF AMIR PILIANG, Historizing the City gemeente Pekalongan in 1906 had included The Articulation of Pekalongan’s Administrative Framework. The boundary of burgermeeter (mayor) of the city (cf Wertheim afdeeling (section) Pekalongan administration etthe al election. eds., 1958; of H.J. Pemkot Kunneman Pekalongan, as the first 2007; Staadblad (government and Margana & Nursam ed., 2010). The unconclusive result of the previous administrationwas defined by wasthe changed into gemeente process before the formation of the designated (city)official Pekalongan gazette) No.73 in 1906, of 1874. the city’s After governingthe team has shown the many differences system was later again transformed in of opinion on when the city had started 1929 into the autonomous staatsgemeente originally. These differences have also shown (municipality) Pekalongan (Wertheim et al. the difference in the understanding of the eds., 1958; Pemkot Pekalongan, 2007; and history of Pekalongan, and the perception Margana & Nursam ed., 2010).1 of a history of a city in general; and so, In this system, the city has its independent rights to form its own legislative body, understanding of “history” within a pattern which in 1929 was consisted of eight therefore, this writing will first discuss the Dutch representatives, four Indonesians, how the history of a city, and the history of and one representative of far eastern Pekalonganof life and then in particular, reflect back can on be the delineated. issue of origin (Setyaningsih, 2005). The area is now currently known as the Kotamadya HEIDEGGERIAN UNDERSTANDING (municipality) Pekalongan. OF HISTORICITY The Articulation of Cultural, Social, and According to Martin Heidegger (1985), Political Spaces. Before the formation of what is understood as the past as part staatgemeente (municipality) Pekalongan, the of history can be seen in four different colonial governing system which always had two sets of governance, the Dutch colonial and no longer have their existence, and all that the native system, had made their impacts on hascategories. passed Theand firstdo not is allhave that any has relevance passed and to the city’s town plan to locate the governing the present. The second category is all that is establishments. The existence of two alun- in continuation with the past and have their alun (public open space) in Pekalongan was existence in the present. It is a process of the result of the dual system, where the south becoming in which the past does not have a alun-alun was the center of the Kabupaten priority from the present nor the future, it is (regency) administration, and the north a process of a singular continuum. The third alun-alun as the center of gemeente (city) category sees history as a totality of entities Pekalongan (Bappedakot Pekalongan, 2006). that changes in time, including the change Diana Budhi Setyaningsih (2005) has in nature and in culture that differentiates recorded the initial formation of the city’s human space from nature. The fourth category morphology, which had been induced is what has already been understood in the by its position at the intersection of sea discipline of history (Heidegger, 1985). transportation from the Java sea and the From those four categories, it can then inland transportation systems, which had further discern how the perception of the been formed since the Sultan Agung’s period beginning of a life in a certain environment of reign (1613-1615). This intersection of two can be conceived and viewed from various transportation ways had made Pekalongan points. This writing will review how the as a strategic location to be the rest point for formation of the city of Pekalongan in Central the army and so, in 1811, the inland path was Java, Indonesia can be comprehended in different contexts, through the articulation 1See also, for example, “Pekalongan”, available online also at: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pekalongan [accessed in of the city’s administrative systems, through Bandung, Indonesia: April 9, 2015]; and “Sejarah Terbentuknya the articulation of its cultural-socio-political Pemerintah Kota Pekalongan”, available online also at: www. space, and through the articulation of its socio- pemerintah-kota-pekalongan.html [accessed in Bandung, economic territory. Indonesia:pekalongan.go.id/Profil-Kota-Pekalongan/terbentuknya- April 9, 2015]. 100 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia ISSN 2085-0980 and website: www.tawarikh-journal.com TAWARIKH: International Journal for Historical Studies, 7(1) October 2015 THE SPATIAL FORMATION OF PEKALONGAN SEAPORT NORTH ALUN-ALUN SOUTH ALUN-ALUN DUTCH RESIDENTIAL AREA ARAB KAMPONG PECINAN AREA STAADBLAAD 1886 TERRITORIAL BOUNDARY OF PEKALONGAN DE GROTE POSTWEG RAILWAY FigureFigure 1: 1: The Early Formation of Pekalongan City The Early Formation of Pekalongan City © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia 101 ISSN 2085-0980 and website: www.tawarikh-journal.com KATHERINA ALLO & YASRAF AMIR PILIANG, Historizing the City further constructed to be the main post way of bats in the area (Bappedakot Pekalongan, (de grote postweg) by the Dutch Governor- 2006; and Bilal, 2011). General, H.W. Daendels (Setyaningsih, 2005). Diana Budhi Setyaningsih (2005)’s records Diana Budhi Setyaningsih (2005) also have also shown the similarities between recorded the physical formation of Pekalongan Pekalongan’s town planning to the model of city within the period of 1906-1939; and from city in the Islamic Mataram kingdom, where those records, the sequences of the formation the main public open space (alun-alun) can be traced from a network of transportation always consisted of a mosque and the city’s systems, to the construction of the city centers, governing establishments. The oldest record of and the later development along the banks Pekalongan’s physical data is found in Staadblad of Pekalongan river (Setyaningsih, 2005). Figure 1 illustrates these sequences of the and during that period, the reign of the Islamic city’s physical construction until its further Mataram(government under official the rules gazette) of Amangkurat No.73 of 1874, II has development of residential clusters, which declined and served under the authority of gave the city’s another layer of texture. the VOC (Vereenigne Oost-Indische Compagnie) Dutch colonial.